Helsinki (30.10.2019, Heikki Jokinen) Several important collective agreements in the technology industry are nearing their expiry date at the end of October. Altogether these agreements cover 296,000 employees. In spite of the tight schedule no results are anywhere near in sight during this current round of collective bargaining.
In 2016, the three-year national Competitiveness Pact added 24 extra annual unpaid working hours for a majority of Finnish wage and salary earners. This has not had any positive effects at all on working places, quite the opposite according to a survey conducted by SAK, the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions.
During the summer time the JHL Central Office and the Regional Offices will apply shorter opening hours. The Membership Services and Bargaining Department hotlines will be at your service on working days until noon. The Unemployment Fund will be open the whole summer.
Helsinki (21.02.2018 - Heikki Jokinen) Debate in the Finnish Parliament on the citizens' initiative to stop the so called activation model took a peculiar turn. At the beginning of the debate on the initiative signed by 140,944 citizen not a single MP from the Government parties turned up.
Helsinki (08.02.2019 - Heikki Jokinen) A total of 3,362 employees lost their jobs in private companies in Finland in the year 2018. This is practically the same figure as for the previous year, when 3,276 people were made redundant in the private sector. In 2016 the number of redundancies was 10,874.
Helsinki (28.09.2018 - Heikki Jokinen) The neoliberal think tank Libera has filed a complaint against State of Finland to the EU Commission concerning the generally binding collective agreements in Finland. Libera claims these are an obstacle to a free market and competition.
The Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors JHL is launching an overtime and shift-trading ban in almost all of its sub-sectors as of the beginning of October. The ban will remain in force until further notice. JHL is also prepared to expand the industrial actions, if the preparations for the lay-off bill continue.
Helsinki (24.7.2018 - Heikki Jokinen) The Finnish Government will withdraw a planned proposal for amending the Employment Contracts Act by allowing an employer to make, without restrictions, fixed-term employment contracts with anyone under 30 years of age who has been an unemployed job seeker for at least three months.
The Ministry of Transport and Communications and VR Group have come to an understanding on how railway passenger services will be opened to competitive tendering. The heads of railway sector unions point out that competitive tendering will cause significant changes to the sector and future employment conditions must be agreed on together with staff.